


Cover Me Up

by Sookiestark



Series: Fantastic, Frivolous, and Fragile AU's [6]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 03:31:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16442183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sookiestark/pseuds/Sookiestark
Summary: A brief glimpse of Robb Stark and Wylla Manderly Stark





	Cover Me Up

“Don't get up…” Robb says, touching my bare leg, brushing his fingers against my thigh. 

“The fire will go out,” I say. 

“There is time still,” he says, pulling me back into his arms.

In the light of the fire, his dark hair is red, as bright as Sansa’s. The only thing brighter than his hair in the fire is the green of my own. From our bed, I can hear the winter wind howl and rattle the panes of the windows. 

When I was a girl and I grew up in New Castle, I was surrounded by tales of historic feats and grand tales of House Manderly, tales of the Merling King and his trip up the Mander to find a Manderly bride, tales of giants, wargs, twisted things in the dark being slain by the swords of Manderly men and the cleverness and bravery of Manderly women. I was raised around ancient banners, so old they were placed in glass and my Septa told me if we were to touch them they would crumble like dust. Statutes of maidens so lost in time that no one remembered their name, but we did not need to because we knew they were from House Manderly. 

 

Our courtship was a rushed affair. My husband and I have never spoken of why Lord Stark thought to marry his heir so quickly. Lord Stark had sent a message to White Harbor, offering my father a proposal to his heir for his younger daughter, Wylla. At fifteen, I was sent to my future husband, Robb Stark.

The night before I left New Castle, my sister, Wynafryd, offered to soften my hair with a rich green concoction. It smelled like the sea and she spoke sweet words of how lovely I would look to my husband. When the maid tried to wash it out, the green color would not rinse from my golden hair. Wynnie had been jealous that I had received the proposal and not her, the eldest. My father had roared and the maids had tried all the tricks they knew of, but the color would not rinse out. 

Finally, my Septa had braided it in an intricate way and weaved small shells and silver beads throughout it. It looked so pretty that my father finally relented and we were able to depart for Winterfell. However, Wynafryd was commanded to stay behind as punishment.

We were married in the godswood on the day I arrived. In the darkness of the sunset, my father led me into the sacred woods before the heart tree and Lord Stark married us by torchlight. It seemed a magical affair. When he looked in my eyes, I saw his eyes were as blue as my own and when he smiled, my breath caught in my throat. 

We feasted in the Hall of Winterfell, eating from the same dish. At the bedding, Robb blushed but his eyes grew wide and dark with desire. When I lay in his arms that night, he told me, too eager and trying to be tender, as boys are, “Your eyes are so pretty mermen would leave the sea to be with you. Giants would cross the Wall. Bears would ay their heads at your feet.” 

I laughed, as girls do. “I do not need mermen or giants or bears or any other things. I just need one young wolf to hold me for all my days at Winterfell.”

“I can do that,” he said as he cradled my head and kissed me so sweetly.

By the time King Robert came to collect a Hand, I was a woman, wedded and bedded. By the time we heard the word of King Robert’s death, I was with child.

Most call my husband, the Lord of Winterfell or the Young Wolf, but there are some who would have called my husband the King in the North. I was not there to see that, as it happened in Moat Cailin, and I was left to wait in Winterfell with his brothers. 

When the Northern Lords called him King in the North, quietly, Robb redirected them. “I do not want a crown but justice. Let us set the rightful King on the throne and return to our homes in the North.” 

When he returned, he came with his sisters and Lord Eddard’s bones. But, that is all in the past.

“Don’t get up, he says pulling himself over me. I laugh as he pushes my pale legs apart to make space for him. “I have need of my wife.” 

He was happy when I told him the news about the newest Stark that would arrive. Under the blankets, he had whispered, “I hope this one is a girl who dyes her hair green before she meets her betrothed and is willful like her mother.”

My aunt had told me only men, that are truly happy, men with no cares, safe men, well-loved men wish for daughters. All other men wish for boys to carry their name, their house, their legacy, their own unfulfilled dreams. Robb Stark, Lord of Winterfell, my husband, wants a girl. 

 

Our son, Eddard, sleeps in the crib beside the bed. Robb likes him close. 

There are strange rumors that King Stannis is in league with a Red Witch who has poisoned his mind, that the orphaned Targaryen princess has hatched three dragons and overthrown the kingdom of Meereen, that there is a King-Beyond-The-Wall with an army of wildlings and every day they grow closer. There are even those who believe there is an army of frozen dead coming to invade the Seven Kingdoms.

But in the space of their blankets, I do not care about rumors or tales. I have had a heard them my whole life. I have all I need in this room in the light of a dying fire on a winter’s night. This is the truth. This is what is real.

**Author's Note:**

> I have wanted to write this story for a long long long time. I love Wylla and I have been rewatching the show and rereading the books and I just want Robb to live and be happy. I think there is no way for that to happen as long as he stayed South. Honestly, I think his downfall was betraying his promise to the Freys and accepting to be King in the North and the Riverlands.
> 
> However, I wanted this to be simple, sweet, and short. The story isn't so much about the how Robb lived just about that he is alive. 
> 
> And yes, he named his son Eddard. And yes, he will go fight the Wildlings at the Wall with Jon. 
> 
> But for now, he is with his wife...
> 
> The title comes from a Jason Isbell song... Cover Me Up which is the song I hear when I read this story


End file.
